BERNIE SANDERS PUTS CORPORATE CEO'S ON NOTICE

A TRUE PROGRESSIVE
Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders-I

Washington, D.C.-- With federal income taxes due in a few weeks, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who caucuses with the Democrats, released on March 27 a list of ten big profitable U.S. companies who pay little or no taxes.  Some even get rebates! 

Sen. Sanders wants to close the loopholes that make this tax avoidance legal.  For more than a decade, the income tax system has provided generous loopholes for big companies-- the income generated by the working class has become one giant corporate entitlement for these multi-national companies.

As Congress returns to work this week, they will no doubt negotiate over big cuts in spending, including social safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare.  Sanders, who has a 100 percent legislative scorecard with the AFL-CIO, hopes if more Americans realize how much multi-billion dollar corporations skip out on any tax responsibility an irate public may advocate for change.

The Bernie Sanders Ten:

1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.

2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.

3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.

4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.

5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.

6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.

7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.

8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.

9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.

10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.